What is it that humanity needs to remember in order to rewild, repattern and restory?

[Ria Baeck]

Opening a dialogue with nature, we at the Art of Humans Being, spent time in silence with the natural beauty that surrounds this space at Essex Conference Center. We asked the question above. We returned, capturing visually the essence of our inquiry. In this conversation space we share what nature would like us to remember.

[Nancy Goodman]

My first answer to the question came easily: we need to remember that we are "of" nature, not separate from it. If we could know that connection deeply, we might honor it by making choices that protect and enhance rather than exploiting nature.

We explored the outdoors on a warm, dry, idyllic morning, easily equating nature with peace, rest, ease. But acknowledging that we are of nature means acknowledging that we are violent and destructive as tornadoes and lightning storms, that we have the predator in us, that we are also thorns and mosquitoes and poison ivy. My life depends on the death of others. Humans cannot only embrace the tranquil serenity of nature.

Other random thoughts:
Nature delights every sense! Smell of pine, feel the sun, touch the moss, see-oh so much.

Millions of seeds are scattered that will never sprout. They become the soil out of which other seeds will get their chance. Life and death inextricably woven.

The forest is filled with beings of all ages, old trees scarred and bruised by life, still standing majestic and proud. There are plants in varying degrees of health. Our human community doesn't embrace such variety. We celebrate the unblemished.

Surrounded by beautiful patterns of growth - the overlapping scales of an acorn cap, the veins in many leaves, the arrangement of pine needles on a stem.

I am grateful for the invitation to slow down enough to notice the tiny movements, the tiny sounds, to remember just to be.